


scales & stars

by loversihaveknown



Series: Cursed Love [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alpha Bucky Barnes, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe - Fairy Tale, Alternate Universe - Royalty, Dragon!Steve, Fairy Tale Retellings, M/M, Omega Steve Rogers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:02:06
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23152171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/loversihaveknown/pseuds/loversihaveknown
Summary: Steve is born... wrong. Monstrous. Instead of skin, he has scales. Instead of a home of his birthright... he has the forest.It doesn't matter to Bucky.or, Steve Rogers is Prince Lindworm.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers
Series: Cursed Love [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1666414
Comments: 16
Kudos: 70





	1. Chapter One

Bucky’s family occupied a precarious place in the village. 

His mother was a midwife, and she was respected far and wide - not only for the birthing of babies, but for her general good nature and willingness to help any who asked for her healing. His father, on the other hand, was not possessed of such a nature. George was tolerated by his neighbors, but his quick rise to anger and slow descent into peace made him popular only with the other drunkards at the tavern. 

Because George was unreliable, and his skill as a farmer had been depleted somewhere along the family tree, his mother Winifred had to bring in the lion’s share of the family’s money and bartered goods. She assisted in childbirth. She grew herbs and made medicines. She had a deft skill with a needle. And when she was particularly busy - through the late months of summer and into the autumn - she would often take one of her children with her as she attended injured fathers and laboring mothers. Bucky, and his sisters, were able to help with simple tasks such as drawing water, or were able to play with the other children of the household - as much a distraction for those who needed it as a reward for Winifred’s own brood. 

And it just so happened that when Winifred was called to attend the lady of the manor house that lay on the outskirts of the village, Bucky was chosen to go along with her. 

He hadn’t seen his mother much that week. She’d been busy, and his care, along with his younger sisters, had been generally left to the neighbor-woman who hadn’t any children of her own. (Or, when his father claimed responsibility, he was allowed to run wild and tend to himself. But that was supposed to be a secret that they weren’t to tell Mama.)

That day, however, she had been granted a reprieve. She’d woken Bucky with his favorite breakfast, and sang all the best songs as she’d put their cottage to rights through the morning. They were just about to sit down to lunch when the messenger came, and Bucky pouted all the way out the door. 

“Hurry along, Buck,” Winifred murmured as he scrambled up the hillside beside her. “We mustn’t keep the Lady waiting.”

Why not? Bucky thought crossly, but instead of saying the words out loud, he’d only stumbled faster along behind. His eye lit on a decent sized rock - big enough for something truly exciting to be hiding underneath - but even though his fingers itched for a stick to poke it with, he hurried along his mother’s wake. He saw one of his friends outside, with a ball in one hand and a chicken feather in the other, and thought about saying hello, but he knew better. He hadn’t even had time to finish his lunch - he’d had to bring half of it along with him, and he’d swallowed a piece of bread before he’d finished chewing. He imagined he could still feel the lump of it in his throat. If he wasn’t allowed to finish lunch, he surely wouldn’t be allowed to stop and say hello and ask what that chicken feather was for. 

It did not help Bucky’s irritation that the hillside was rocky and slick from recent rain, and that he’d slid and fell and torn the skin of one knee. He wanted to cling to his mother’s skirts and beg for comfort, but all she did was gently ease him up with a smile before wrapping her shawl more tightly around herself and urging them forward again. 

When they reached the great house, the Lord himself was outside to greet them. He barely spared a glance for Bucky. Instead, he took the healer’s bag from Winifred, the one filled with all of her herbs and potions and equipment, and offered her his arm, quickly escorting her to the chamber where his Lady lay, red faced and whimpering. 

Winifred was at her side immediately. “I know it hurts,” she soothed. “But you’re doing well so far. I need you to take some deep breaths with me, my lady.”

Bucky tuned out the rest - the quick instructions for water, and inquiries about the lady’s pain. He’d never been inside the great house before. The room they were brought to had no windows, which Bucky thought was very odd. It was lit by a fire in the hearth, and candles and lamps placed on all the surfaces. When Winifred directed him to the far corner, he went, sitting obediently, but turned around right away to see the picture formed on the heavy tapestry at his back. He’d never seen such a large picture before! On it, a knight raised a spear against a large, horned red dragon. 

He wondered whether or not the knight won or the dragon won. The knight’s face was not very kind. Bucky knew better than to admit that sort of thing out loud, but he did wonder if maybe it would be better for the dragon to eat him. After all, it looked like the dragon was in front of a cave, and surely he could be excused for killing a trespasser to his home?

It seemed to take forever. Usually, his mama would let him go play. Or he’d get a job to do - boiling water, or singing, or _something_. But there were servants here to do all of the jobs, and he wasn’t allowed to wander off. All he could do was sit there and scowl. 

And then it was over. 

Bucky climbed up on his knees and watched as his Mama smiled and brushed her hair back from her face before bending forward again to wrap a little pink faced, wailing girl child in a bundle of cloth. She placed the bundle in the new mother’s arms - except instead of smiling, the woman grimaced and started before crying out, “I think… there’s something - oh!”

She gave a great big groan, and Mama passed the girl-child off to one of the other ladies clustered around the bed, and when the lady finished grunting, Winifred was holding something else in her hands, except it didn’t look like a baby. 

It was green. And it had - what appeared to be, anyway - _scales_. 

Bucky’s eyes grew wide as he stared at the thing, and then he whipped his head around to look back at the tapestry. 

It was Winifred who asked the question that filled the room. “What is this?”

The scaly thing opened its eyes and blinked. A forked tongue flicked through the air. 

“It’s a monster,” the lady wailed, but Bucky only grinned. 

He’d never known that people could give birth to snakes before. He thought it was _fascinating_. 

“It - well, it can’t be!” Winifred exclaimed, and tried to pass the creature to its mother, but the lady pushed her hands away. 

“Set it over there,” the lady ordered, her voice weak. She gestured to the crib. “I don’t know what to do with it.”

It seemed to Bucky that if the lady had had the creature inside of her like a baby, then she ought to hold it close and calm it, like she was doing with the little girl-child. But no one asked him. 

Neither did they ask him later, when they discovered the creature was missing from its crib, but he saw what happened. 

The creature had risen up on scaled body, peeking over the side at his mother and the servants that bustled to and fro, cleaning the sweat from her body and rolling her onto her side in order to clean the bed. The creature’s eyes were wide open, and full of intelligence - and hurt feelings. 

And instead of staying put for someone to deal with him later, he slithered down the side of the crib, paused to look back at the doorway, and slipped out the crack underneath the door. 


	2. Chapter Two

When Bucky was ten, he wanted to raise rabbits. His friend Samuel had acquired a set of breeding rabbits and told Bucky all about how he was going to keep them in a little pen beside the sleeping quarters in his hut, and make them have lots of babies, and then give them to his mother so that she could make his family lots of his favorite rabbit stew. 

Bucky thought that was a capital idea. It certainly sounded easier than going out into the woods and hunting them, or even setting snares to come back and check later. Plus, they were warm and cuddly, with their silky fur and button noses. The more Samuel talked, the more Bucky realized that the rabbits were a guarantee: just like the chickens the neighbors tended to, Sam would know for sure when he’d have rabbits ready for cooking, and then if he kept some more back for breeding, then they’d have a steady supply all through the year. 

So he helped Samuel weave a sturdy cage that he could take outside to let the rabbits graze in, and when he went home that evening, he begged his Pa to let him keep rabbits, too. 

“Absolutely not!” Pa said. 

“But why?” Bucky asked, plaintive, and Mama shot him a  _ look _ . 

Bucky knew why. He just thought it was ridiculous. 

“Because no son of mine is going to fall in love with a rabbit!” Pa thundered, and Bucky crossed his arms in front of his chest, ducking his shoulders down. 

“Of course not, Pa,” he muttered. “Rabbits are for eating.”

Bucky usually liked it when his mother brought him close for a quick hug - even if he was at the age where he didn’t so much want to admit it - but the strength of her affection barely registered over the sudden disappointment that rocked through him. 

They weren’t allowed to have anything good. Stupid family curse. Stupid Pa. Stupid neighbors with their stupid chickens and goats and dogs. 

His father reached out to clap a hand on Bucky’s shoulder. “I can’t risk you, lad,” he said. “Besides, the snares work fine. If you want a rabbit stew so badly, you can go out and catch it yourself.”

Bucky wanted a pet more than anything. Even if it was a pet he needed to raise for their table. Even if he’d have to give it up. 

But at that moment, what he  _ needed _ , was to get far, far away from his Pa. 

“Fine!” he yelled, and shook off his father’s hand. He bolted out the door. 

“Get back here!” Pa yelled, but Bucky didn’t stop. 

If he went back, Pa would wallop him for his disrespect. Bucky’s thought was that if you were going to get a whoopin’, you might as well go have some fun, anyway. 

Not that he had any fun in mind. 

He ran into the forest, past the blackberry bushes and beyond the copse of elderberry trees. He didn’t care about getting his feet wet in the stream he forded - his feet were bare, anyway - and he splashed through it in a hurry, a quick smile of delight at the icy cold water spattering up his legs. He took himself as far as he could get away from his Pa as fast as he could do it, and he ended up in a part of the forest he’d never been in before. 

He stopped against an alder tree to catch his breath, pleased when he turned around and no one was coming after him. He didn’t think there would be; Pa wasn’t much one for chasing, as long as Bucky could run out in the open air. Pa didn’t like to ‘make a spectacle’ - whatever that was supposed to mean. 

(Bucky heard his Mama say that Pa made a spectacle of himself near every night at the tavern, but she said it real quiet and Bucky didn’t think he was meant to hear it, so he kept mum about it.)

Now that he was still, and not kicking up the underbrush or panting like a dog in the summer sun, he could hear a curious rushing noise. 

And since he was a ten year old boy giving himself an adventure, he followed it. 

It was a waterfall. 

The water was white and frothy, and he could feel the spray from where he was stood on the bank. The mist made him shiver as it hit the cooling sweat on his skin, and he grinned brightly. He’d found the best hiding place! None of the other boys in the village had ever said anything about going off to see a massive waterfall. 

When he moved his head around to look around the place, the light caught the water just right, producing a brilliant rainbow. For a second, he wished he could show his sisters - they liked to catch them in the sky. He wasn’t willing to give up his hiding place for that, though. 

He played with the light for a few moments, turning his head up and down, from side to side, and sort of craning it on the diagonal to see how things changed. But it was just a rainbow, after all. Eventually, he moved on from it, turning on the spot to see what else was there. 

There were the normal forest things at the treeline - trees and rocks and fallen logs, mushrooms and plants that flourished in the understory. The stream itself was rushing and burbling, with a bank that was more rock and dirt than sand. 

And on the other side of the stream, set into the rocks, was an opening that looked like it might lead to a cave. 

“Hello?” Bucky stuck his head into the cave. “Anybody home?”

“Who are you?” returned a voice. 

Bucky stumbled back in alarm, tripping over his feet and landing heavily on his rear end. “I’m sorry!” he said quickly. “I didn’t know anyone lived here.”

He could see a shape moving in the darkness, but he couldn’t hear anything helpful over the sound of the water. He scrambled to his feet again. 

“I’ll just...be…” his words tapered off as the person came into view. Except it wasn’t a person at all! There was a long, thin body with no arms or legs, and two horns perched on top of its head. It was scaled, and green, and Bucky felt his heart begin to race with fear. He started to sidle away, very carefully. 

Mama had told him before that if he was ever cornered by a predator, he shouldn’t start off by running, as animals were made to chase things and then gobble them all up. 

She’d tickled him as she said it, but Bucky wasn’t laughing now. “I’ll just be going,” he murmured. 

“Don’t go!” the creature said, and Bucky stilled. 

“Why not?” He was certain the creature was going to tell him that he wanted Bucky for dinner. 

“Because I’m lonely,” the creature admitted, and finally slithered all the way out into the light. 

It was then, seeing that particular shade of glittering green, that Bucky remembered. He blinked. “You’re the Lord’s son.”

The creature made a sound almost like a sigh. “Yes.”

“What are you doing all the way out here by yourself?” Busky asked. 

“They don’t want me.”

“I’m sorry.”

They were both silent for a long moment, each regarding the other. The creature had beautiful bronze eyes, not yellow like the snake Bucky had seen in a cage the last time they’d gotten a visit from the traveling tinker. The only thing scary about them, Bucky decided, was that the creature barely blinked, and after a little while, Bucky looked away. It was too uncomfortable to keep his gaze when he blinked twice as much as the creature did. 

“I’m Bucky,” he said finally. 

“I’m Steve.”


End file.
